[Focus man. Focus.]

Ok I made a silly mistake. Over the years whenever I needed to add coolant, not very often I have always used the "mixes with any" type. And now it's green, fine. No over heating or problems related to this. I was planning on replacing all rad/heater hoses this weekend and in error got the wrong stuff. I know that the Ford coolant is suppsed to be gold in colour but in error I got DexCool, orange coolant. Is this going to cause problems or do you think it will be fine. From what I have read I should be ok. What do you guys think?

[duckcanuck]

As far as I know, the one thing you do NOT want to use is the Dexcool Orange.

SPI uses old-style green. Zetec and Duratec use long-life yellow (Ford calls it "Gold", but adds a description in the owner's manual that says "yellow-colored")

I understand that the orange stuff "does not play well with others".

I'm sure there are others on this forum who have more definite knowledge.

Bob

(10-09-2010, 11:44 AM)Focus man. Focus. Wrote: Ok I made a silly mistake. Over the years whenever I needed to add coolant, not very often I have always used the "mixes with any" type. And now it's green, fine. No over heating or problems related to this. I was planning on replacing all rad/heater hoses this weekend and in error got the wrong stuff. I know that the Ford coolant is suppsed to be gold in colour but in error I got DexCool, orange coolant. Is this going to cause problems or do you think it will be fine. From what I have read I should be ok. What do you guys think?

[habmann]

Don't use Dexcool, whatever you do. I've got it in my Grand Prix and it's given me nothing but trouble.

[Frost__2001]

Actually in the 2000 - 2001 focus they used the standard green coolant, I know in 2002+ they made the switch to the gold coloured one.

[Focus man. Focus.]

Maybe I will just get a jug of the Green and be done with it. What a pain. You would think I would know better.

[NOS2Go4Me]

Yeah my 2000 was refilled with green when we did the t-stat housing.

[Focus man. Focus.]

Well I have still to get the coolant but I have ordered a new belt, tensioner, and idler pully. T-stat and housing as well. Looks as if I have my work cut out for me this weekend. Anybody want to lend a hand?

[NOS2Go4Me]

Make sure your t-stat "housing" is the big piece that bolts to the block and not the "adapter" piece that sits in the hose and bolts to the front of the housing itself. Might also be called the t-stat cover (adapter).

Also, be aware that Ford Parts has recently found to be no better than a bundle of trained monkeys. The "new" housings use a coarse-thread, self-threading bolt that threads into the walls of the housing itself. The old style has brass inserts in the housing and finer-threaded bolts. When we went to replace the t-stat housing for my car, we oriignally only ended up with the new housing and the old-style brass insert screws and cover. We then had to order the new cover with coarse bolts and send the old-style crap back.

Mind you, it's all bolted together fine now. Just FYI. When we spoke to Stockfish's parts guys, they had two listings for each part - t-stat housing and adapter, presumably old-style and new-style with no inidication of which was which. We've since told them which part type relates to which part type and they were supposedly emailing Ford of Canada about the issue. No word back on if anything came of it.

[hardk0re]

sure do wish htp was still around and making these again.

Their site is still up but apparently they are just taking money and not sending products Filing for bankrupcy..